Onyx Boox M96

[2holdon]

So I updated the M96. Changing the language did not get me any further. Manually downloading did, however.

Now, I am not sure what to say.

Now the reader is... useless. When pdf quality was acceptable before, it is not any longer. I cannot read the text.
And this is NOT in the A2 mode but the "quality" mode.
See the image attached from the same document as earlier.

The scribble now works better. It still lags, but this may be due to the e-ink. The stylo is precise in that you can actually make out a specific point and hit it spot on. However, a decent writing speed will get you into trouble as the M96 is too slow to pick up every swing of the pen precisely.

So, this has not been helpful.

I have to say I am fairly disappointed.


PS: Booxtor, how do I get a hold of you? I have been e-mailing you through the contact form, the support form and your shop e-mail address for clearly over a week and I have not gotten a single response. Would you mind getting back to me? Thanks!

[por]

Originally Posted by punch_md

I got mine yesterday (thanks booxtor!), and my first impressions are good, compared to the M92:
- speed seems pretty good, and for writing after the booxtor update above, the lag is minimal (I had to download the update from ereader.de, the ota trick didn't work for me either)
- the major improvement on M92 with M96 is the access to all the apps in the Google Play store... so now I have an embarassement of riches.

My two main uses of the M92 (and the Irex before that) are
1) note taking
2) pdf annotation (correction of scientific papers)

So now for these I'm looking at a couple of apps, and would appreciate any advice/suggestions.

1) For note-taking:
- Lecturenotes seems to be my best option for the moment, saving in an open format (png), and with the possibility to export to PDF. The saving of the file with a timestamp in the format I like (ISO date) is a big plus.
- Write from Stylus labs seems to have more functionality, but looks really adapted for a colour screen and active pen. Nicely saves in SVG format and can export to PDF. The menus are in colour, so become almost (or actually) unreadable. But maybe the developer (who is active) could look at adapting it for b/w stylus pads?
- Papyrus is professional, but has some strange way of saving the data in a database, so I'm afraid to be locked out of my notes if they go down the drain or cause vendor lock-in.

2) PDF annotation (haven't started to look at this yet, in detail)
- Booxtor's Neoreader could be okay once the promised possibility to merge the scribbles materializes (or maybe I can do this with Imagemagik on Linux already somehow, as a workaround?)
- ezPDF seems to come strongly recommended...

Suggestions are welcome, maybe there could be something on the mobileread wiki with a comparison table?

As an early adopter, I don't have a problem with the device's software not being perfect yet, but hope it will advance quickly!

Since scribbling best works on the Neo reader I guess that's where you'll be wanting to take your notes. Using a Pdf with blank pages or when the feature of adding blank pages becomes available by simply adding pages to existing PDFs.

The scribbling in other apps (ezPDF reader, or Lecturenotes) has always been inferior to the one in the Neo reader (in my experience). If all the promised feature are introduced into the reader this will become the perfect device for note-taking and PDF annotation (4 times cheaper than the Digital paper device by Sony) .

[por]

@Booxtor:

Please be careful when coding the annotation merging software. Check if straight lines in scribbles are merged correctly (bug on the M92)

[2holdon]

@por: Would you mind uploading a screenshot of the same pdf I used in my above posts? It seems that you do not have the problems I encounter (or you don't mention them).

The direct-pdf link is this: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.2980v1

It would be great to see if this is a single device issue (i.e. mine is broken).

Thanks.

[CampGareth]

The further I dig into this (in order to make repairs easier) the more terrible design I find. At the moment the issue is the 5-way stick, it's held in place by nothing more than two plastic pins or so I thought, so watch out as that may eventually break. But when you go to remove it, you find it's been epoxied around the pins. Someone obviously made a boo-boo and then proceeded to fix it in the quickest way possible. I can't remove it at the other end either as it's soldered onto the board, no connector. Without removing it somehow I can't take out the steel plate and get access to the other end of the ribbon cable I damaged.

http://imgur.com/hXwlrNH

I'm honestly not sure what to do in this situation, I opened the back cover so my warranty is voided pretty badly at this point, but to go ahead and try to repair it would require I void the warranty even further because there's poor design everywhere. This isn't designed like a 300 EUR device for sure...

[por]

Originally Posted by 2holdon

@por: Would you mind uploading a screenshot of the same pdf I used in my above posts? It seems that you do not have the problems I encounter (or you don't mention them).

The direct-pdf link is this: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.2980v1

It would be great to see if this is a single device issue (i.e. mine is broken).

Thanks.

While in the Neo reader press the menu button, then go to Font, then press on Bold, then confirm.

[punch_md]

Originally Posted by por

Since scribbling best works on the Neo reader I guess that's where you'll be wanting to take your notes. Using a Pdf with blank pages or when the feature of adding blank pages becomes available by simply adding pages to existing PDFs.

The scribbling in other apps (ezPDF reader, or Lecturenotes) has always been inferior to the one in the Neo reader (in my experience). If all the promised feature are introduced into the reader this will become the perfect device for note-taking and PDF annotation (4 times cheaper than the Digital paper device by Sony) .

Okay, thanks, but for the moment I have no scribbling in NeoReader (?), even though in the menu->more->settings there are options for "ScribbleBar".

Am I missing something?

[2holdon]

Originally Posted by 2holdon

@por: Would you mind uploading a screenshot of the same pdf I used in my above posts? It seems that you do not have the problems I encounter (or you don't mention them).

The direct-pdf link is this: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1406.2980v1

It would be great to see if this is a single device issue (i.e. mine is broken).

Thanks.

@por: Your comment looks like it is meant for somewhere else.
Could you check on that screenshot?

[2holdon]

Originally Posted by CampGareth

The further I dig into this (in order to make repairs easier) the more terrible design I find. At the moment the issue is the 5-way stick, it's held in place by nothing more than two plastic pins or so I thought, so watch out as that may eventually break. But when you go to remove it, you find it's been epoxied around the pins. Someone obviously made a boo-boo and then proceeded to fix it in the quickest way possible. I can't remove it at the other end either as it's soldered onto the board, no connector. Without removing it somehow I can't take out the steel plate and get access to the other end of the ribbon cable I damaged.

http://imgur.com/hXwlrNH

I'm honestly not sure what to do in this situation, I opened the back cover so my warranty is voided pretty badly at this point, but to go ahead and try to repair it would require I void the warranty even further because there's poor design everywhere. This isn't designed like a 300 EUR device for sure...

I am not sure why you decided to open your device in the first place.

But since that is the past and has happened I am following your posts of the interior with interest.
Alas, I am having a hard time getting the pictures and your writing together. Could you specify more clearly on the pictures (maybe an arrow or alike?) what you are referring to in the text?

[CampGareth]

Originally Posted by 2holdon

I am not sure why you decided to open your device in the first place.

But since that is the past and has happened I am following your posts of the interior with interest.
Alas, I am having a hard time getting the pictures and your writing together. Could you specify more clearly on the pictures (maybe an arrow or alike?) what you are referring to in the text?

It was mostly curiosity, tbh I was just shifting it around in my hands and trying to work out why it needed to be the weight it is. 10" tablets usually need large batteries but this doesn't so should weigh maybe 300-400g. If I could weigh the steel plate that'd be interesting. I usually end up taking stuff apart btw, this is just the first time I've been unable to put it back as it was :P Point taken about labels and arrows though, I'll get going on a proper tour of the internals dumping all the information I can think of into the captions.

[Kazuma]

Originally Posted by fgdas

Could someone try to test bluetooth keyboard with M96.

My intention is to use it with PDF reader for hands free wireless page turning.
Down, up or left and right keys.

Thank you!

Hi

I have tried bluetooth keyboard with OnyxReader and in my environment (the one I'm using is ZAGG Keys Flex, btw) page turning is possible by pressing right/left keys. Pressing up/down keys increases font size of the pdf. Settings are also manageable with BT keyboard.

[por]

I can't get remote access software like splashtop to work on the M96. When I connect to my PC the M96 simply shows a black screen.

[por]

This blank PDF is what I use for taking notes. Happy scribbling!

[punch_md]

Originally Posted by por

This blank PDF is what I use for taking notes. Happy scribbling!

For the M92, I have a set of squared PDFs (made with openoffice), with varying numbers of pages, and a set of scripts which I could execute on the M92, which copy e.g. the 20 page one to a new version with the current timestamp. Of course, I have to anticipate how many pages a given meeting will take. The big downside is that the "export to pdf" of template plus scribbles is huge (but can be diminished in ImageMagick). Irex's software was so much better...

For the M96, this kind of solution seems a step backwards, so I'm leaning to buying "Lecture Notes" &/or "ezPDF", since I cannot find any scribble functionality in NeoReader, and even if I could, there is no current way to merge. If the "StylusLabs Write" app could be made to work properly in greyscale, that would be better for notes, though (saves in SVG), and is free.

Could someone tell me how to access the scribble functionality in NeoReader, so I could test that part, at least?

[por]

Originally Posted by punch_md

For the M92, I have a set of squared PDFs (made with openoffice), with varying numbers of pages, and a set of scripts which I could execute on the M92, which copy e.g. the 20 page one to a new version with the current timestamp. Of course, I have to anticipate how many pages a given meeting will take. The big downside is that the "export to pdf" of template plus scribbles is huge (but can be diminished in ImageMagick). Irex's software was so much better...

For the M96, this kind of solution seems a step backwards, so I'm leaning to buying "Lecture Notes" &/or "ezPDF", since I cannot find any scribble functionality in NeoReader, and even if I could, there is no current way to merge. If the "StylusLabs Write" app could be made to work properly in greyscale, that would be better for notes, though (saves in SVG), and is free.

Could someone tell me how to access the scribble functionality in NeoReader, so I could test that part, at least?

While in the Neo reader press the menu button. Then go to Notes, then scribble.